Dog bites are a significant public health problem worldwide, but the welfare perspective is often overlooked — most dog bites are the result of welfare failures in the dog's environment and training.
Dog bites are almost always welfare stories before they are public safety stories. The dog that bites is typically a dog that has been failed: inadequately socialised, trained with punishment that suppressed warning signals, kept in chronic pain, or placed in situations of fear without support. Understanding dog body language and respecting canine communication signals — rather than punishing them — is the most effective bite prevention strategy available. Breed-specific legislation addresses public anxiety without addressing root causes, and typically involves the welfare harm of mass euthanasia of dogs that have bitten no one. The welfare-positive approach invests in education, force-free training, and addressing the environments that produce fearful, reactive dogs.